uDev Club

uAnniversary — uCoz Has Turned 10!

Fliros — Fri, 30 Oct 2015 07:34:50 GMT

That's right, we've been in the website building market for 10 years! Today we are celebrating our first major anniversary consisting of two digits. For IT industry that's a good indicator of stability and growth.

Very few web services can boast such a long way, many of them shut down before passing this milestone. During these 10 years uCoz had its ups and downs, but the company has always kept true to its values as a free website builder.

At present uCoz is not only a website builder, but also the company providing a number of different products and services. Still, it's our first and flagship product that is celebrating its 10th birthday today. For that time it has become an important chapter in the lives of many of our users.

A birthday is a good reason to accept presents. And it's also a chance to give them away! That's why this year we're launching a special offer — "Invite friends and receive gifts!", and are reminding our users about the uCoz Money affiliate program.

This is a great opportunity to tell your friends about your favorite website builder and earn at the same time. By participating in this offer you get:

$0.50 for each invited active user

20% of all payments made by your friends

a two-month premium plan for each 10 active friends you invite

up to 50% off uCoz's premium services

Head over to the website below to take part in the offer and see our birthday cake:

u10anniversary.com

All your congratulations and wishes are more than welcome in the comments below We'll select the most unique greetings and award their authors with pleasant surprises.

And some more news

This year we've been working really hard on the new Control Panel that we promised a while ago. We know that many of you are looking forward to this update. We are close to the completion but still need some more time. Follow the news — this is a major update you wouldn't like to miss!

uCoz just turned 9!

Fliros — Mon, 24 Nov 2014 09:56:58 GMT

It’s a normal working day over here, but one that is sparkling. We wish to thank you for being with us through this year. It has been very fruitful and we are gearing up for one even more intense. But meanwhile we would like to present our Birthday gift to you — integration of 2Checkout as a new payment method in E-shop. $CUT$

It seems like only yesterday that we celebrated our 8th Birthday! Here at uCoz HQ, time simply flew while we were beavering on the new features. Today we turn 9, and we invite you to join us in celebrating our Birthday!

A lot can happen in a year's time, especially on the Web, and our devs and designers haven't been sitting idle. We've released a lot of new and long-awaited features, including subforums, social comments and social sign-up, our own Android app and many other major and minor updates and fixes. Even more new features are ahead still for this year!

While some of our coding gurus have been wearing out their keyboards to bring you the aforementioned updates, other teams have been working on an exciting new goodie - 2Checkout.com integration in the E-shop module! Now you can easily set up payments with bank cards in your online shop. Check out the detailed setup tutorial.

Thank you for staying with us, for building sites, blogs, and shops. You inspire us to create, to make the service better, to develop new features and improve the existing ones. We've been helping you for 9 years, and it's only just the start!

uCoz website contest

Fliros — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 11:44:57 GMT

We look for The best uCoz Website made by this page fan every month. Do you think Your site can be one?
The winner will get BUSINESS SERVICE PACKAGE for a month. We estimate website design and development and take all the LIKES you get into account.Ask your friends to vote for your website with their Likes!

POST A LINK TO YOUR WEBSITE TO THIS PAGE TO TAKE PART!

uCoz video tutorials contest

Fliros — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 20:22:48 GMT

A new contest dedicated to creation of video tutorials about the system starts. What do you need to participate in the contest? All you have to do is to create your own video tutorial about uCoz (you can come up with the topic yourself or select the suggested one).

By the way, we have a brilliant manual on creation of video tutorials. If you follow the instructions, you will become a contest participant without any extra efforts and you will have high chances to become a contest winner. The awards are really worthy. But first of all, let's speak about nominations:

Nominations

The best uCoz web-services overview video

This video tutorial should be dedicated to uCoz web-services in general (great example is Creating a website within 10 minutes). To make the choosing process easier, you may select one of the topics for this nomination.

The best uCoz feature expose video tutorial

Such a tutorial should be about using a particular system feature (e.g. "Adding items in E-shop module”). Select one of the topics for this nomination or come up with your own.

The best video tutorial in a foreign language

If you are good at any of the foreign languages, try to create a video tutorial for foreign system users. Russian-speaking participants can take part in the similar contest, for Russian-speaking users. In this way you increase your chances for the victory.

All the participating video tutorials will be evaluated in such nominations as:

The best voice narration

In this nomination video tutorials are evaluated by means of hearing and not watching. Voice, music, sound effects will be taken into consideration.

The best idea

The most important here is to come up with the most urgent and interesting topic , for a video tutorial. The video script should be thought through too. The way the idea was brought to life is not that important.

The best video effects

Applying video effects to your video will attract more users to viewing your tutorial for sure. The main point is that the effects are appropriate and they do not steal the focus from the main idea of the tutorial.

Top views

Promotion of a video tutorial is really important. You need to attract as many users as possible. Post your video tutorial at sites and on forums (especially in the place where it is useful) and observe the number of views increase. The number of comments will be of a big importance as well. The author of the most commented video tutorial on youtube will be awarded without any doubts.

Prizes

Each participant, whose project is accepted, will receive a bonus of a "Basic” package of services for 1 month (read more)

A winner of the nomination
The best uCoz web-services overview video
gets:

A video camera
"Basic” package of services for 1 year
Nationwide glory: winning video will appear at all the official uCoz web pages (facebook, twitter, youtube).

A winner of the nominations
The best uCoz feature expose video tutorial
The best video tutorial in a foreign language
gets:

100 WMZ (or 100$ added to the account of the website owner)
"Basic” package of services for 1 year
uCoz souvenirs from our shop our shop at your choice (the delivery rate is included)

A winner of the nominations
The best idea
The best voice narration
The best video effects
Top views
gets:

"Basic” package of services for half a year
uCoz souvenirs from our shop our shop at your choice (the delivery rate is included)

Contest terms and conditions

We accept projects till May, 9, 2011

The number of projects from one participant is not limited.

The projects will not be allowed to participate in the contest, if:

the video tutorial duration is less than 7 seconds (without intro and outro length etc).
'ucoz' tag is missing in the video uploaded to youtube
the video tutorial topic is not uCoz related
the third-party logos or website advertisement is present in the video
the video is of poor quality (it is impossible to decipher the text, the images etc)
any kind of plagiarism is noticed (music, splash screen, the video itself)

We recommend you follow the instructions of our manual to avoid mistakes of novice screencasters and to become as close to the victory as possible.

You can come up with the topic of the video tutorial yourself or select the suggested one.

Adding the projects

When adding the video to the website, provide a link to your tutorial (YouTube.com only), your name and the website (not mandatory)

After adding we will check your project. Then it will become available in the general list of videos. You will be able to comment on the videos of other participants and follow the contest.

Notice: The contest is for Russian and English-speaking system users at the same time. You can have a look at the projects of Russian-speaking users here.

Good luck and be inspired!

[ See and rate video tutorials ]
[ Add your video ]

Start with PHP

Fliros — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 18:54:56 GMT

Here is a refreshing update! From now on uCoz makes it possible to use both PHP and API! The new possibilities enable you to actualize various features on your website, to get a tighter grip of the templates, and even create advanced services on your website.
Yet, this novelty isn’t strictly for professionals. Thanks to the collection of scripts, which we will be replenished on the ongoing basis, everyone would be able to take advantage of them.

Read the details: http://u.to/dBDc

uCoz web-services textbook

Fliros — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 19:19:13 GMT

Finally, uCoz web-services textbook in English is available - http://book.ucoz.com/

The textbook provides all the answers to "why”, "what” and "how” questions in order to achieve the results.
The textbook is a collection of:

* step by step instructions for creating a website: starting with system registration and finishing with system $CODES$ analysis
* full description of all the MODULES
* tables with description of settings for each module
* description of website administrative panel operation
* description of the main principals of website design
* guide on account management
* safety and security recommendations

The full content of the book looks like this: http://u.to/kGnS
Thumb through: http://u.to/kWnS!

Take part in our special offer - your opinion is important for us.
Besides the textbook, you can find various instructions and manual at forum.ucoz.com and faq.ucoz.com

uNet gifts contest

Fliros — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 21:21:15 GMT

It is well-known that our nearest plans include uNet full launch. Social connections between the users are going to be implemented there. But what kind of communication is that, if there are no gifts, presents and other stuff to express your emotions. I mean small graphic images, which can be exchanged among users (example).
$CUT$
We would like our presents to be the most beautiful and original. That is why we suggest all of you to become a part of gifts-creation process within this contest. This is a contest for those who can and love painting. The purpose of it is to paint an original gift for the upcoming uNet project.

Participating in the contest will not only bring you nice gifts. Your portfolio will be enriched as well.

Contest terms and conditions

We accept images (painted by you) in the PNG format (size 256х256px). They shouldn't be more than 200Kb. The background should be transparent. Or we can accept flash-animation on one of the suggested themes:

Gifts themes

Flowers

Romance

Holidays

Prosperity

Food

Business

Cute things

Nominations

The best gift

The best image will win in this nomination. Everything will be taken into consideration: the idea and the implementation. The author of the best image will get the main prizes.

The best collection of gifts

If you feel that you have an inspiration to paint several gifts, gather them into the collection and send them to participate in this very nomination. What are the advantages of the collection? Read about it in the section prizes.

The best animated gift

The projects in .swf format are accepted into this nomination. (animated flash gifts)

Besides, each project will participate in such nominations as:

The most original gift

Select the theme you like. Then create the most unusual and original gift.

People's Choice award

The number of users' votes at the page of the project will be taken into consideration.

Prizes

The author of the best project will receive a graphics tablet or LCD monitor 23 at your choice + the money reward for the best project in the nomination (see below).

Prizes for the winners of the nominations:

The best gift
Three 50$ prizes + Service package/domain*

The best collection of gifts
One 100$ prize + Service package/domain*

The best animated gift
Two 100$ prizes + Service package/domain*

The most original gift
One 50$ prize + Service package/domain*

People's Choice award
One 50$ prize + Service package/domain*

*Service package/domain - at your choice: paid service package "Basic" for 6 mounths or domain for your site.

Besides, all the authors, whose works didn't win in any nomination, but would be used in the uNet project in future would receive royalty for each of the painted images (50$ for each image and 100$ for each animation).

Adding the project

You can add your project here.

Instructions on adding:

At the page of adding the project it is obligatory to specify nomination, name, selected theme, and the image file.
If the gift is animated, indicate the static preview anyway (256х256px; format:png, jpg). Indicate the path to the swf-file in the field "URL of the flash-gift”.
If you add the collection, make a preview of one gift (256х256px; format:png). Indicate the path to the collection in the field "URL of the gifts collection”.(format: zip,rar).

The number of projects from one participant is not limited. (if the images are of the same style, do not forget to gather them in collections)

We accept your projects till April, 1, 2011

The sources of the projects (images with the transparent background) will be seen only by the administration. The users of the website will be able to see and evaluate thumbnail previews (they are created automatically). It guaranties that your projects will not be spread on the web before the contest is over.

Projects verification

The preliminary results of the contest will be announced within several days after the contest is over. The winners will be contacted by the contest administration with the request to provide the images source (in the vector format or .psd)

The winners will be announced officially after it. Then they will receive prizes for winning and participating.

Remember, all the image elements should be painted by the author. Copying graphic elements of others is strictly forbidden. It will be examined thoroughly by the evaluation committee.

Good luck and inspiration to all the participants

Don't forget to see and rate projects
or add your project!

New customized browser

Fliros — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 13:16:07 GMT

Now you can download our customized browser. It's a Firefox browser package created specially for uCoz users, that includes uToolbar and other useful addons. Our customized browser packages will make work with your websites easier and more interesting!
See more information here http://browsers.ucoz.ru/index/en/0-5

E-SHOP MODULE

Fliros — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 07:30:17 GMT

The outstanding event transpired today. The "E-shop” module, previously in the beta-testing mode, acquired the status of a constant release. It was a long path! Together with our active users we have been testing and updating the module for more than a year. The module has gotten significantly bigger, gained additional features. Many oversights and errors have been fixed. New goofs were made :) and shaped up again.
$CUT$
At present, we believe that the module has reached the point when its functions might be considered reliable, and its features sufficient for the majority of its potential users. Obviously, it doesn’t mean there is no further opportunity for advancement. We have very extensive plans in this regard. Moreover, in the nearest future we will post a so-called "road map” on our plans. As usually, we are open to your opinions and suggestions regarding development. Also paying respect to the needs of active module users we’ll carry out the requests.

As it was announced before, "E-shop” module is a commercial module within uCoz web-services. For many reasons including responsible attitude toward business and consumer market we can't provide such module for free. It will lead to creation of e-shops that are made without a bit of accountability. Such e-shops mislead their customers by accepting orders, but not processing or delivering them. This discredits the whole e-commerce in general. It is harmful to a global network industry and for all of us.

I would like to point out the list of module's key features. This is only a brief description of the module that will help those who hasn't tried it yet, to get a gist of what this module is about.

So, let’s get to the list of key features.
Besides traditional features for e-shop creation like: shopping cart, customer registration, order forms, goods cards, order management, there are such outstanding features as:

System of automatic order payment. It means:

- PayPal;
- Bank (credit) cards via Liqpay and PayPal services;
- SMS payments from 80 countries via Smscoin agregator.
- e-money;

The discount system that allows provision of discounts by means of matrix, depending on the total order price and payment history.

Reports:
- report on customers' sources;
- report on incomplete orders in the e-shop;
- automatic calculation of income and profit.

Export and import of the data for its further usage, including price-listing participation.

Group work with goods’ prices:
- Matrix for package purchase price change.

Working with goods:
- automatic upload of goods from the price-lists. Price-lists can take any form;
- automatic selection of the goods description from the ready catalogs;
- automatic search of the images appropriate for the goods;
- possibility of adding options (color, size etc) and additional goods (e.g. additional cords, spare headsets) to the main item.

uCoz team congratulate!

Fliros — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 16:44:53 GMT

Our dear users!
uCoz team congratulate you with Christmas and coming New Year.
We wish you health and happiness! May all your dreams come true! We wish your websites success in their development! :)